Hello. My name is Ross White. I'm from the Jenner area.
My brother and I ranch in the Jenner area. We were quarantined on October 22, just prior to marketing our calves. We pre-sold our calves in early October and were scheduled to deliver in the last week in October and the first week in November. The quarantine prevented us from marketing our calves, resulting in a loss of profit over the market. We were forced to renege on our contracts. This also put the buyer in a tough spot and may impact future sales to him.
There are many costs that we are forced to incur because of the constraints placed on us by the CFIA and the federal government. We were unable to get a response from the head vet for 10 days from the time we were quarantined. We were told to call him on any livestock movement. How does that work?
Our calves are still on the cow as we have not been given any direction as to when we may be tested and/or when some or all of our cattle will be released from quarantine. We are getting very mixed messages, and the costs continue to rise. The quarantine has affected our management of our cow herd, as follows.
Calves are still on the cow, resulting in the loss of body condition of the cow. There is increased grazing pressure on our deeded and leased land, resulting in loss of litter and carryover. There are concerns over the lack of availability of water for the calf crop that is quarantined, and possibly a huge loss due to wintering-out of dams when the ice is thin. There is the cost of the introduction of the calves when we wean them this week, and the additional manpower that is required when we wean our large herd. We normally don't have that expense, so we are unsure about how to handle this. Death losses may be large if the weather turns against us.
As well, there is the cost of running our cows through twice, and the impact on our facilities and manpower that is required by the restrictions on us to carry out parasitic control and pregnancy testing. We really are unable to treat anything as treatment has an impact on possible slaughter.
There is the cost of embryonic loss of our cattle herd as they are run through the facilities twice. We have the cost of equipment, yardage costs, feed and trucking costs, and costs of additional feed resources in terms of how we don't know what time period we are looking at.
Also, there is the impact of overcrowding our herds, as we are not able to practise normal marketing management practices. Movement is limited by the quarantine. As well, there is the cost of the loss of genetics, as we are not able to purchase breeding bulls this fall with the uncertainty over where to house the new purchases.
This quarantine has placed an enormous amount of financial and emotional stress on our families and our neighbours who are under the quarantine. We truly do not know what the financial cost will be to our individual ranches and what impact this quarantine will have. I recently purchased another ranch to the north, and I am concerned with regard to the reduction in land values caused by the quarantine and the future impact of trying to market cows from this area. We may be quarantined by the buyers long after the CFIA quarantine is lifted. What cost does this carry for my ranch?
This is truly a disaster. The way in which the quarantine was handled has made the process even more devastating. Communication and concern for us as ranchers running a business is totally lacking. The officials in charge have no understanding of our ranch business and the impacts of their actions as they relate to the destruction of our ranches. Many of us may not be able to weather the storm and will be forced to sell out. I appeal to you as the government in charge to initiate some action in the CFIA and the government and take ownership of the calves and all costs. We did not plan for our hands to be tied. I remind you that this is a CFIA action.
Thank you.